Road Trip USA 2015: Driving To The Grand Canyon, North Rim

So after the Antelope Canyon Tour, we started our drive back to Las Vegas with a detour to see the North Rim of the Grand Canyon.

Honestly, the drive into the North Rim of the Grand Canyon is more interesting than the Grand Canyon itself. LOL.

Check out the scenery during the drive to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon:

Scenery on the way to the Grand Canyon North Rim from Page, AZ. Marble Canyon in the background.Scenery on the way to the Grand Canyon North Rim from Page, AZ. Marble Canyon in the background.Marble Canyon – scenery on the way to the Grand Canyon North Rim from Page, AZ

Pretty innit? This is pretty much all you’ll see in the 2+, almost 3 hours drive to the entrance of the Grand Canyon National Park. Ok, I’ll confess to speeding as the distance we had to cover is really huge and keeping to the speed limit is not going to get us there in due time; as we have learnt the hard way on the first couple of days.

That said, I’m not encouraging you guys to speed but because of the distance we had to cover, we really need to get from point A to B as quickly as we can.

TIP: Just so you guys know, whatever estimated duration you see on Google Maps when planning a road trip in USA, you’ll need to add at least 2 hours to their estimated duration if you keep to the speed limit to factor in pitstops to take photos at scenic points, toilet breaks, refuelling and traffic. Yes there is traffic in the middle of nowhere.

TIP: There are only like one or two petrol stations along the way from Page, Arizona to the Grand Canyon, and the one we encountered at Jacob Lake wasn’t working so we ended up driving in and out of the Grand Canyon with just a bit more than a three-quarters tank of fuel. We started with a full tank from Page, Arizona so take note of that.

TIP: We put a roll of toilet paper in the car as there was almost no where to stop for a toilet break for at least 1+ ~ 2 hours while driving through towards the Marble Canyon area. Fortunately, we didn’t need to go au natural to answer the call of nature but you know… just in case. ^^

So here’s what it looks like when we were driving inside the Grand Canyon National Park:

Scenery on the way to the Grand Canyon North Rim from Page, AZScenery on the way to the Grand Canyon North Rim from Page, AZScenery on the way to the Grand Canyon North Rim from Page, AZ

We actually did encounter some cows along the way… LOL. It was so weird to see cows out there in the middle of nowhere actually.

Scenery on the way to the Grand Canyon North Rim from Page, AZ

Anyway, after another almost 2 hours (we had to go quite slowly because there was ice on certain parts of the mountainous road), we finally arrived at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon!

Behold!

Grand Canyon, North RimGrand Canyon, North RimGrand Canyon, North Rim

Truth is, we left within 30 minutes of arriving. LOL. Simply because the Grand Canyon is such a place where the view is pretty similar from most angles so it wasn’t worth staying in there for long unless you are planning to hike/trek down to the valley or something. If you want to do that, then you really should stay in the many lodges INSIDE the Grand Canyon Park itself.

So the moral of the story is: take a helicopter tour of the Grand Canyon; the view will be more spectacular from above (as confirmed by my Aunt) and you don’t need to make the 2 hours or so drive in for a 5 minutes view of the Grand Canyon.